Rei the Hiiroo
by LordCthulhu
Summary: Rei is a soldier from a war best forgotten. Is there redemption in the blistering streets of Lux? Can he find it?


Rei the Hiiroo  
Texhnolyze FanFic by Paul Franklin  
  
Rei felt the shallow wind begin to settle. The slight breeze was the only thing keeping the heat bearable in the city of Lux right now. If it failed, people would be collapsing in the streets. Rei's frail frame wouldn't be able to take much more either. His legs were almost crippled beyond use, the breaks from long ago never healed. The dingy t-shirt he wore did nothing to hide his exposed ribs.  
  
The feeble light from the lights high in the sky illuminated the side street where Rei was walking. Trash drifted around, carried by the hot breezes that blew through the alley. Monolithic buildings crowded the street with their grime-caked facades. Noises from the city floated down the street carrying sounds of life and death.  
  
Rei shuffled forward again on his crippled legs. 6 Organ bastards decided to take care of his troublemaking days. In the short space of ten minutes, Rei went from being a freedom fighter to just another cripple. A forgotten soldier with nothing to show for his wounds.  
  
Moving slowly, Rei entered the marketplace, the noise of voices crowded around him, making him feel closed in, almost claustrophobic. Vendors yelled out to potential customers, people tried to haggle the cuttthroat prices being charged and children yelled to their lost mothers. Rei hated the marketplace, a pale imitation of the actions of the Organ, only made for the poor and destitute.  
  
There was another Alliance meeting tonight. Rei considered attending, then realized that the useless efforts made by the Alliance had yet to even make Organ notice their existence beyond the few minutes in which they were making noise. The Alliance versus Organ. It wasn't even a case of David vs. Goliath, it was more like a single person against the universe. Hopeless in all cases, there was no point in wasting effort on their tedious meetings.  
  
People in the marketplace avoided Rei's gaze, they knew who he was. It was hard to look defeat in the eyes. Especially when Rei would stare back with his one good eye and smile the knowing smile. Without words, the communication was clear, Rei had given his life for these people and when he had failed, they left him where he fell.  
  
How did that make them any better than the monsters who ran Organ? They played at their foolish pantomime of the society that shunned and banished them. A culture based on the refuse of another culture.  
  
Rei looked at the street crossing through the center of this marketplace. A small boy was standing in the center of it, crying and screaming for his mother. Rei continued on his path to the other end of the square. From the corner of his eye, he saw an Organ car speeding through the marketplace, heedless of the people who leaped and twisted out of its way. The boy was in a direct line with the car and did not even see it, his attention focused on finding his lost mother.  
  
Rei had only enough time to grimace and wince as he lurched towards the roadway, pushing the boy from the path of the car. Rei had just enough time to see the eyes behind the wheel as he heard the car's engine rev up.  
  
The car hit Rei with all the force of a ton of speeding metal could muster. It bent around him like he was a titanium pillar set in solid stone. A horrible grinding metal sound came from the car as it's momentum twisted it around Rei's solid form. Blood, glass, and human bodies flew through the air in a shower of mayhem.  
  
Blinking, Rei opened his eyes. He could see the car continuing it's course, hardly slowing down to see the two forms that lay beside the road. The inert form of the boy lay a few feet from him. The boys eyes were open and glazed, the life had been punched out of him in an instant. Rei coughed once, blood spewing out as his body began the slow process of shutting down. It was a momentary daydream. But any sort of a dream in Lux was worth keeping. Rei closed his eyes and watched the dream one last time. 


End file.
